Wednesday, February 23, 2011

North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve hiking to see waterfalls and wildflowers.

(20feb2011) North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve is a great place for hiking to see waterfalls and wildflowers. We drove to Oroville, CA and drove north on Cherokee Rd to the Dept. Fish & Game public access parking. There are no official trails here. Jim's portable gps (Garmin GPSMap 76S) was a handy tool for this kind of cross-country hiking. The rolling hills and limited visual landmarks make it a tricky place to hike cross-country. If you wander around on top of Table Mountain you will eventually get where you are going and see lots of interesting things along the way. Under these conditions a portable gps is helpful to know where you are and to plot an efficient route to your desired hiking destinations.

Beatson Falls and Twin Ravine Falls - Waterfalls at Table Mountain.

We hiked cross-country to Beatson Falls and Twin Ravine Falls. Along the way we got distant views of Sutter Buttes to the south-west, snowy mountaintops like Snow Mountain & St John Mountain to the west, and possibly Ruffa Ridge to the north.

Wildflower season begins at Table Mountain.

We saw some of the first few wildflowers blooming at Table Mountain this year. Hopefully we can go back there later in the spring to see additional types of flowers that bloom later in the season.

• Owl's Clover and California Poppy wildflowers.

Unfortunately our hiking was interrupted by equipment malfunction. The rubber sole came off one of my hiking boots came off as we were hiking away from Beatson Falls. All of the spare rope and string we could find in our backpacks could not secure that rubber sole on my boot despite repeated attempts to retie and rearrange the strings. After Ravine Twin Falls I reluctantly agreed to hike out. This was a remarkably good decision because shortly after the rubber sole on the other boot started separating from the shoe. Fortunately we got back to the car before either of my boots completely disintegrated.

We stopped at Taco Bell in Oroville on the way home. I was disappointed that their Cantina Tacos have been rotated out of the menu. I really like their new Smoke Flavored Taco Sauce.

Mostly once a month I always go for a mountain hike. It is my way of relaxing when I am on top of the mountain and in the middle of wonderful scenery. It could vanish all my stress and all my tensions specially when the wind soothes my skin.